It's ranked by the rank of the sites that link to you. After that then there are about 200 other factors with weights that change all the time. Like keyword in title, domain name, metatags, h1 tags, etc, etc.

Staff: Mentor

As only one of many factors, including the content of the page itself, and how it's structured and marked up. It's not simply a matter of counting the number of times the word being searched for appears on page, it goes far beyond that. Links from other sites are important, but the classic PageRank algorithm is only part of that. They also take into account how "related" the content of the other sites is to yours.

Google doesn't give out details because they don't want to make it easy for spammers, but they do have a nice summary of basic generic optimization techniques here:

Staff: Mentor

Yes, paying Google will get your site listed as a "sponsored link" in the pink area at the top of the search results, or in the sidebar at the right. This is completely separate from the "organic search" algorithm. I've often seen sites turn up on the first page both as sponsored links (because they paid Google) and near the top of the organic search (because they do well in the organic search algorithm). Try searching for "Apple Computer", for instance.

Yes, paying Google will get your site listed as a "sponsored link" in the pink area at the top of the search results, or in the sidebar at the right. This is completely separate from the "organic search" algorithm. I've often seen sites turn up on the first page both as sponsored links (because they paid Google) and near the top of the organic search (because they do well in the organic search algorithm). Try searching for "Apple Computer", for instance.

Actually that is part of the issue. I understand the question and to a certain extent there are ways to help, but money is a factor. And it goes beyond the adwords thing.

Your site can get better ranking if you find a site that has a deal with google or yahoo.

Staff: Mentor

Allegations that a site can improve its position in the organic search rankings by making some kind of behind-the-scenes deal with Google are fairly common on webmaster-oriented forums (I participate in a couple of them), but I haven't seen any hard evidence of it, so I consider them to be basically conspiracy theories.

Well that was something they denied years ago, but did come clean. It is no big secret. That is when the one put on their submission link a way to buy placement.

My wife sold crap on the internet, and she got placement by buying space on a site that did have a deal with the search engines. And her site was named very odd, so if you searched direct it should have been at the top.. That only occured after she signed up for the site that did have a deal.

Yeah to sell adwords google has change it a little. You can at least buy sidebar now.

Staff: Mentor

I am with jtbell on this one - while many claim Google sells rankings, nobody has ever seen any proofs.

Tell me why www.ph-meter.info shows as second when you search for pH meter - you think I have paid $.01 for that? No, site is properly optimized and has good, strong links. And it took several years to get it that high. That's so called white hat SEO, plenty of tutorials on the web.

Staff: Admin

For a website to appear at the very top under Google's search engine, what is required?

As said above, the exact nature of Google's ranking algorithms are of a murky nature and that is by design. But, it essentially boils down to quality content, proper content formatting, appropriate keyword application, and most important, quality and number of incoming links.

PageRank is not used much for actual result rankings anymore. It has been exposed as an indicator for priority of indexing. A site with a PageRank of 7-10 will be hit faster, longer and deeper by googlebots compared to a site with a PageRank of say 2-3.

I am with jtbell on this one - while many claim Google sells rankings, nobody has ever seen any proofs.

Tell me why www.ph-meter.info shows as second when you search for pH meter - you think I have paid $.01 for that? No, site is properly optimized and has good, strong links. And it took several years to get it that high. That's so called white hat SEO, plenty of tutorials on the web.

So I am the lone conspiracy nut. Oh well, I guess I will go sit in my pyramid and meditate until the eye in the sky sends me new instructions.